Pickle-Haters, Stay Out Of My DMs

Of all the topics that have been discussed on Stew's Letter so far, only one has caused a tsunami of responses: pickles.

Pickle jokes bond humans together, apparently.

One loyal Stew's Letter fan told me that he enjoys reading the email each week, even though it makes him want to eat pickles every time it shows up in his inbox.

Another loyal Stew's Letter reader made a poignant point in an email with the subject line "In a pickle:"

I think there are neither cucumbers nor pickles. Those are merely essential arbitrary Platonic categories that don’t really represent reality, only human convenience. There are similar sequence[s] of DNA that create whatever they can, whenever they can, as often as they will, and without concern for burgers and salads.

It turns out that pickles are a shockingly powerful lens through which to understand the world.

Interestingly, nobody has had any strong opinions about cucumbers. It feels similar to how we think about caterpillars: they're fine, but, let's be real, we're waiting for them to become butterflies.